SINGAPORE CHC trustees gave investment firm power to negotiate, sign agreements: Jeffrey Cheong (CNA, 30 August 2013)

SINGAPORE: A trustee of City Harvest Church, whose role was to manage its assets, told the court on Friday that he had not been involved in the negotiations that related to the investment documents he signed off on.

Mr Jeffrey Cheong, who is a founding member of the church and one of the church's three trustees, said this was because they had given investment firm -- AMAC Capital -- the power to negotiate and sign agreements on their behalf.

Mr Cheong is the second witness to take the stand in the second tranche of the high-profile trial involving six leaders of City Harvest Church.

The six are accused of conspiring to channel S$24 million into two companies using "sham bond investments" to fund the music career of Sun Ho, the wife of church founder Kong Hee.

Another S$26 million was allegedly used to cover up the first amount.

In court on Friday, Mr Cheong acknowledged that he was no expert in managing investments, and said he was briefed either by church employees or lawyers on documents when he signed off on them.

However, when shown some of the documents relating to the church's transactions, he was unable to recall exactly what he had been briefed about.

In one instance, a S$13-million bond subscription agreement involving Xtron Productions -- the company that had managed the music career of Ms Ho between 2003 and 2008 -- the bonds had already been drawn down at the time he signed the documents.

When asked if he knew of this at the time he signed them, he said he could not remember.

Mr Cheong was also shown some documents relating to the church's transactions, which he said he had not seen before.

These included a letter from John Lam -- one of the accused -- to the owners of glassware manufacturer Firna. The church had agreed to invest millions in Firna bonds, and be allowed to convert the bonds into shares in the company.

If that was carried out, the church would sell the shares back to Firna at US$1.

It was also pointed out that some investment decisions that had been made by the church's management board, and which the trustees had signed off on, had not been made known to the church's executive members during general meetings.